Tuesday, January 27, 2015


Snapchat Targets News Discovery With New Feature
Venice, California-based Snapchat--already an indispensable communications tool for the always-on, mobile generation--is looking to become an even more important part of its user's lives, with a new feature it calls Discover. Snapchat launched its new tool on Tuesday, saying that its new feature is a collaboration with "world-class leaders in media" to put the "narrative first"--tapping into the knowledge of professional editors and artists. Snapchat said the feature is "not social media", bu (More info...)
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Savings.com Rolls Out Update To Favado Grocery App
Los Angeles-based Savings.com rolled out a big update to its mobile, grocery shopping app, Favado, which it says it has completely redesigned. The app helps grocery store shoppers organize their shopping, by finding sales and coupons at local grocery stores. Among the updates to the app are highlights of "trending" sales; a simplified, visual interface for sale items; and highlights of "instant" coupons. The updates also looks to broaden the appeal of the app, by hiding many of the features that (More info...)
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Lynda.com Snags New Enterprise GM From Salesforce.com
Carpinteria-based lynda.com, the online learning and education company backed by Accel Partners, Spectrum Equity, TPG Capital and Meritech Capital Partners, has bolstered its executive staff in the enterprise area, saying this morning that it has named Erik Nierenberg as General Manager of its Enterprise business. Nierenberg had most recently been at Salesforce.com,where he had been in product management; he also was former VP of Business Development and Strategy for Chatter, and also served at (More info...)
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Oculus Courts Hollywood With New Film Unit
Irvine-based Oculus, the virtual reality headgear and technology maker which is now part of Facebook, announced Monday at the Sundance Film Festival that it has created a new unit to help Hollywood make virtual reality movies. The new unit--called Story Studio--will both create original content, as well as help other filmmakers with their virtual reality content efforts. The effort--which is being led by Saschka Unseld, a veteran of Pixar--will initially focus on animated shorts, which a viewer (More info...)
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Aspyrian Therapeutics Raise $8.5M
San Diego-based Aspyrian Therapeutics>, which is developing technology to treat cancer tumors, has raised nearly $8.5M in a funding round, according to a regulatory filing. Details and investors in the company were not announced. Aspyrian is commercializing technology originally developed at the National Center Insitute, aimed at selective, surgical removal of cancer tumor cells.
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Transphorm Begins Mass Production Of Power Devices
Goleta-based Transphorm, which is backed by Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and others--said this morning that it has begun mass production on the company's Gallium Nitride (GaN) power devices, in a deal with Fujitsu Semiconductor. Transphorm said it is using Fujitsu's CMOS-compatible, 150mm wafer fab in Fukushima, Japan. Transphorm's CMOS-compatible power conversion technology is aimed at creating ultra-small AC adapters, high density PC power supplies, servers and telecom, and many other are (More info...)
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j2 Global Extends Tender For Carbonite
Los Angeles-based J2 Global said this morning that it has extended its tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Carbonite, until February 26th, to allow further negotiations with the Carbonite board of directors. j2 is in the midst of a hostile bid for Carbonite, in an attempt to takeover the provider of online storage and backup services. j2 has offered to buy Carbonite for $415M, but instead of working with Carbonite directly, had launched a tender offer directly to Carbonite's shareh (More info...)
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Money Mailer Gets Funding Round
Garden Grove-based Money Mailer, the decidedly old-school provider of coupons via snail mail, has scored a funding round from investment firm Babson Capital Management, the two said Monday. Size of the investment was not disclosed. Money Mailer was founded in 1979, and offers up local coupons and discounts using a network of 180 franchisees. The companies said the funding goes to provide liquidity to Money Mailer's shareholders, and support growth of the company.
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SOA Software Claims Big Growth Numbers
Los Angeles-based SOA Software, which develops software used by enterprises to manage internal APIs and interfaces between software, said today that it saw 90 percent growth in 2014 over 2013. Actual financials were not announced by the company. The company said the year-over-year growth was a record for the company. Last year, the company reported 52% growth, again without specific financials. SOA Software is led by Paul Gigg, and serves the Fortune 1000 market.
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